THE PREPAREDNESS TO SHARE INJECTING EQUIPMENT - AN ANALYSIS USING VIGNETTES

This paper reports on the use of vignettes to study drug injectors' pr eparedness to share injecting equipment. Separate vignettes referring to borrowing and passing on injecting equipment have been submitted to 505 injecting drug users in Glasgow. Injectors were asked to identify their own likely response in each of the situations described within the vignettes. It was shown that even among those injectors not report ing any actual sharing in the last 6 months a significant proportion w ould still be prepared to share injecting equipment within certain sit uations. The preparedness to shave injecting equipment was seen to be influenced by such factors as social distance, sex and length of time injecting. It is suggested that even in situations where drug injector s may have modified their behaviour in the direction of lower levels o f reported sharing, a propensity to share may remain. This suggests th e continuing need to provide injectors with easy access to sterile inj ecting equipment; in addition, services working with injecting drug us ers may need to focus not only upon actual sharing behaviour but also upon what we have described here as the preparedness to share. Indeed, the latter dimension should stand as a warning to services of the pot ential for sharing injecting equipment to increase in the future.